Ad of the week

Incredible shrinking woman leads us to the Smirnoff

By Caroline Marshall

12:01AM BST 27 Apr 2004

Advertiser Smirnoff

Agency J Walter Thompson

Background The brand that introduced the west to vodka, Smirnoff accounts for one in three vodkas we down. It is made by the London-based booze giant with a cod-Latin name, Diageo. The company has recently lavished £250m on a global makeover. It includes new packaging for Smirnoff and the investment appears to be paying off. Sales are up by 13pc year on year and the off-trade vodka market (sales in supermarkets, off licences etc) has grown by 6pc in the past 12 months. The debut ad in the new campaign is titled "Matryoshka" (meaning Russian nesting doll).

What happens It begins with a woman in a shop accepting a loaf from a baker. We next see her letting herself into an office disguised as a cleaner. Inside, she breaks open the bread to reveal a key, which she uses to unlock a safe where she finds a microfilm. Guards storm the office and she leaps from a window into the snowy street below. She escapes her pursuers several times before climbing into a drain and disappearing. The ad moves to the airport shop where the baker buys a matryoshka. He boards the plane and opens the doll to reveal the microfilm. The camera pans out to show a Smirnoff bottle on the drinks trolley and the limp endline "Not the usual".

Opinion There is precious little difference between vodkas in terms of flavour, so image really matters. Shot in Russia, and with more twists and turns than a Bond movie, this ad is blessed with a production budget of biblical proportions. Trouble is, it's hard to follow the plot even after multiple viewings. Too much Smirnoff, perhaps, for the creators?